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Holiday car hire rip off


Vince Green
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My son has just returned from a holiday in Southern France. They hired a car through the same website they booked the villa. He's only 22 so not terribly streetwise. The car was a "good price" but not new and a bit ropey. Still it didn't ring any alarm bells. 

When he took the car back on Saturday the charged him £800 for damage like scuffed wheels and a few old marks on the bodywork that were not down to him. 

Classic rip off, be careful is the message, when he got back home he checked them out and there are hundreds of reviews say avoid at all costs, its a scam, rip off etc

You can't stop them because they have already taken a swipe of your card so the charge just gets pushed through. He's going to talk to visa tomorrow.

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Sorry Vince but this happens all the time and your son has learned a valuable lesson.

We take photo's all round the vehicles we hire and notify the company before we accept any damage above a certain size, we also take out the full waiver package to avoid such charges.

Some firms operate like the one your son used, reading reviews and shopping around is the way to go.

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happens in the uk as well................my company (i worked for).....went with a premier hire car company......and when the cars went back in they were scanned and mapped with a laser...............you wouldnt beeelieve what they tried to bill us for...........they were charging us for spraying finishing polishing scratches that werent visible with the naked eye...

also they tied to charge us for whole rear panels of the back end of the new volvo estates...that they said were ruckled...we contacted volvo and they sent a laser map printout of the rear of the car straight from the factory.......which only a laser could see...........

 

shisters...............:mad:

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26 minutes ago, ditchman said:

happens in the uk as well................my company (i worked for).....went with a premier hire car company......and when the cars went back in they were scanned and mapped with a laser...............you wouldnt beeelieve what they tried to bill us for...........they were charging us for spraying finishing polishing scratches that werent visible with the naked eye...

also they tied to charge us for whole rear panels of the back end of the new volvo estates...that they said were ruckled...we contacted volvo and they sent a laser map printout of the rear of the car straight from the factory.......which only a laser could see...........

 

shisters...............

I hired a car in Yarmouth to go to my daughters wedding in Kent , the chap came out with a drawing of the car ( sides , front and rear ) , we walked around and any marks he put down on the drawing , 

When I came back we both looked around the motor and it was fine , he allowed me 300 miles for the trip and over that was about 15p a mile , when he looked I had done about 30 odd over and he said there was no extra charge , excellent service and I would certainly recommend .

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8 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I hired a car in Yarmouth to go to my daughters wedding in Kent , the chap came out with a drawing of the car ( sides , front and rear ) , we walked around and any marks he put down on the drawing , 

When I came back we both looked around the motor and it was fine , he allowed me 300 miles for the trip and over that was about 15p a mile , when he looked I had done about 30 odd over and he said there was no extra charge , excellent service and I would certainly recommend .

some of the hire companies...usually the smaller ones are top banana..:good:

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I used to liaise with one of the UKs biggest. 

The amount of times we were charged for damage that wasn’t caused by us was unbelievable - sometimes cars would be dropped off and people (cleaners) pressured into accepting them then despite not moving there was damage not noted on the docket. 

I was part of the final shots across the bow when we presented the same bill (for differing amounts) for the same damage - the record was 12 times for the same bumper corner scuff and they were asked to explain how on each occasion it was ‘repaired’ then damaged exactly the same - to include the uv pen mark drawn around the scuff and the date added to the previous ones. 

It was put down to a branch admin error!!!!

i am a right stickler if I hire a car or van personally now - I get a damage waiver policy via a third party and legal cover in the event of a dispute. I take the guy out photograph the number plate , original sheet the proceed to photograph each panel and wheel then inside. At the end I get them to add the damage they ‘missed’ then say casually the legal department of the liability company requires it to build up a database incase of any issues on return. 

Usually it’s not even checked 

I also pay on a slush fund card that has no overdraft and just enough transferred in to pay for the car. 

I hate them with a passion

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I have used EconomyCar rentals numerous times on our hunting/fishing trips to Slovenia. They have always been spot on price wise and also giving a full check around the car prior to our leaving and a duplicate of all the marks etc found as we jointly checked the car out.  I did have one minor bump whilst there a couple of years ago and on calling them they said to return the car straight away and a replacement would be waiting, which it was.  There was no extra charge as I had paid just a relatively small amount extra to cover this eventuality.

Certainly at Llubljana airport their staff were 100% and very helpful/friendly.

Edited by Walker570
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I had a rental for a couple of days this week, I picked it up on Sunday. Its nearly new and done less than 2000 miles and had no damage reported on my paperwork. A good walk around I found one alloy had a scuff and paintwork scratches on the bonnet and rear quarter. I took a photo of everything then went back in the office and dragged the man around pointing everything out and getting it added to the paperwork. It was a full to full rental from an airport and the fuel gauge was also one mark off fuel, this i also pointed out and photographed and agreed it would be returned the same. 

I had the bill and damage report through yesterday within an hour of returning it by email, I was amazed that they had not charged me any extras at all, which I was surprised as I normal expect them to try it on.

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A lot of stuff on the internet about these scams, many of the rip offs are more subtle. Things like putting through charges several days later for things like missing floor mats, missing tyre inflators or jacks that are hard to dispute.

Broken door locks is a very common one, how would you know? Everybody uses the key fob to open the door

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1 hour ago, Vince Green said:

A lot of stuff on the internet about these scams, many of the rip offs are more subtle. Things like putting through charges several days later for things like missing floor mats, missing tyre inflators or jacks that are hard to dispute.

Broken door locks is a very common one, how would you know? Everybody uses the key fob to open the door

This is the most common one as majority of companies put through any added expenses a few days later. Hard to argue when your long way away.

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We had a car  included with our Villa (jet2) OK car hire in Menorca, they wanted a deposit of 1400e, and 104e for fuel. I left the car and took a taxi to the villa. I hired a car from Vals cars in Binibecca, 105e for 5 days and he just took the keys back and asked if same level of fuel was in car, 100e deposit given straight back without even looking at the car.

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6 hours ago, Davyo said:

We had a car  included with our Villa (jet2) OK car hire in Menorca, they wanted a deposit of 1400e, and 104e for fuel. I left the car and took a taxi to the villa. I hired a car from Vals cars in Binibecca, 105e for 5 days and he just took the keys back and asked if same level of fuel was in car, 100e deposit given straight back without even looking at the car.

well he done you out of 4 euros.

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51 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Lloyd, SIXT are very competitive as they are relatively new to the market.

We use Enterprise at work and I used them for the Airshow Photography Trip I have just been on.

No I wanted to know what his best stories were from working there 😂😂 from both sides of the desk! 

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9 hours ago, ferguson_tom said:

We hire cars on a regular basis unless its spotless when we pick it up we take a video on our phone and walk around it zooming in on any damage. Once one of the companies tried charging us for some damage that was already there, pulled the phone out and they quickly backed down.

+1 thats what everyone should do. 

 

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